"Iraqi forces said on Monday they had seized a strategic government complex in the western city of Ramadi from the Islamic State after a fierce weeklong battle, putting them on the verge of a crucial victory following a brutal seven-month occupation of the city by the extremist group. The loss of Ramadi, the capital and most populous city of the western Iraqi province of Anbar, would be the most significant in a string of recent defeats for the Islamic State, which has occupied a large stretch of Iraq and Syria since the middle of last year." (12/28/15)

"An anti-Islamic State activist and filmmaker has been shot dead by assassins in broad daylight in Turkey. Naji Jerf, 38, was shot with a silenced pistol in downtown Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, Turkish media reported. Mr Jerf was the film director for Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), a group of journalists who risk their lives daily to report on IS abuses. It is the second murder of a member of the group in as many weeks, after Ahmad Mohammed al-Mousa was killed in Syria." (12/28/15)

"Donald Trump has said, 'I would bomb the s--- out of them.' Ted Cruz has vowed, 'We will utterly destroy them. We will carpet-bomb them into oblivion.' ... Neither candidate is likely to pay a political price for embracing wanton destruction. Massive, merciless aerial bombardment sounds good to voters because it's simple, low-risk and spectacular on TV. Nothing could be better than annihilating vicious enemies at minimal risk. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found 73 percent of Americans favor expanded airstrikes on the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. But it's a solution that won't solve. The first flaw is that even the most ferocious use of air power can't 'completely destroy ISIS' as Cruz imagines. The second is that it stands to multiply our enemies and magnify the dangers we face. And that's leaving out the matter that Trump and Cruz ignore, which is the death and injury inflicted on innocents." (12/17/15)

"Hackers have claimed that a number of Islamic State supporters' social media accounts are being run from internet addresses linked to the Department of Work and Pensions. A group of four young computer experts who call themselves VandaSec have unearthed evidence indicating that at least three ISIS-supporting accounts can be traced back to the DWP's London offices." (12/15/15)

"French police arrested two men and a woman on Tuesday in connection with deadly Islamist militant attacks on Paris last month and in January, judiciary officials said. In a separate event that highlighted the knock-on impact of tensions over Islamist violence, a teacher who claimed to have been stabbed by a man on Monday acting in the name of Islamic State militants was hospitalized after admitting to police that he had invented the story, prosecutors said. ... One of the two men arrested on Tuesday in Villiers-sur-Marne to the east of Paris was deemed a 'peripheral' suspect in the investigation into the Nov. 13 attacks, judiciary sources said. ... Another man and a woman arrested by police on Tuesday were suspected of supplying weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, who killed a policewoman and then four other people at the kosher store on the eastern edge of Paris last January, they said." (12/15/15)

"A new survey of young voters finds increasing support for a ground war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) after the attacks in Paris, though the vast majority of the same voters say they have no interest in serving in the military. The semi-annual Harvard Institute of Politics survey of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 found that before the Paris terrorist attacks, the age group was equally divided over a ground campaign against ISIS, by a margin of 47% to 48%. But after the attacks, 60% backed such an effort, with 40% against. Over the course of the survey, however, only 16% of respondents said they would definitely consider, would strongly consider or were already serving in the military." (12/10/15)

"Iraqi forces claimed to have taken control of a large area of Ramadi on Tuesday, entering the army headquarters in the city, which has been held by Islamic State terrorists for seven months. Counterterrorism forces took control of the Tamim neighborhood southwest of the city, commanders said, as troops entered the Anbar Operations Command headquarters to the north. ... The stuttering operation, backed by U.S. airstrikes, has gained momentum in recent weeks. However, Iraqi forces face significant challenges in expelling Islamic State fighters from the city, which is laced with explosives and has a significant civilian population." (12/08/15)

"ISIS does not want to be called Daesh. The group considers the acronym insulting and dismissive. An increasing number of its opponents do not want it to be called the 'Islamic State.' They fear that this shorthand reifies the terrorist group's claims to be a legitimate government. The debate reminds us that names have power." (12/08/15)

"British bombers made their first strikes on Islamic State in Syria on Thursday, hitting oil fields that Prime Minister David Cameron says are being used to fund attacks on the West. Tornado bombers took off from the Royal Air Force Akrotiri air base in Cyprus just hours afterBritish lawmakers voted 397-223 to support Cameron's plan for air strikes, a Reuters witness said. They returned to base safely several hours later." (12/03/15)

"Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said on Wednesday his plan for combating Islamic State militants involves targeting not just the group's fighters but also their families. 'When you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families,' Trump said on Fox News. 'They care about their lives, don't kid yourselves.'" [editor's note: Disgusting, but nothing new. Early in the Iraq debacle, US forces abducted the families of suspected resistance members, holding them hostage in an attempt to extort surrenders. Not only did they not bother to hide that particular war crime, they put out press releases about it - TLK] (12/02/15)

"Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved plans on Tuesday for Germany to join the military campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria, a big step for the country, which had long resisted a direct role in the conflict. In response to an appeal from France after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris which killed 130 people, Merkel's government agreed to send Tornado reconnaissance jets, refueling aircraft, a frigate to protect a French aircraft carrier, and up to 1,200 soldiers to the region." (12/01/15)

"Turkey's rash decision to shoot down a Russian plane for allegedly violating its airspace isn't likely to trigger World War III. But Ankara has demonstrated where it stands. With the Islamic State and against the West. The justification for Turkey's membership in NATO and America's defense guarantee for Ankara long ago passed. Turkey's irresponsible action proves that it is no U.S. ally." (11/30/15)

"[T]ransactions on the Bitcoin blockchain are not untraceable, they are permanently published facts recorded by everyone running the Bitcoin Core software. You can look up transactions at various web sites including Blockchain.info. So if there is evidence of ISIS/Daesh using a particular Bitcoin address, one can get quite a lot of information about what happened -- where the Bitcoin came from, how much of it there was, and any other information included with the transaction. ... Where would ISIS/Daesh be getting their Bitcoins? They must find a buyer for oil somewhere, right? Who is this mysterious buyer of oil paying in Bitcoin? The blockchain ought to show some evidence for it." (11/29/15)

"Air strikes believed to have been carried out by Russian jets killed at least 30 people in the town of Ariha in northwestern Syria on Sunday, rescue workers in the rebel-held area said, part of an escalation of Russian strikes near the Turkish border. In separate air strikes closer to the frontier with Turkey, jets believed to be Russian hit a truck depot that was also struck on Thursday, destroying 10 trailers and killing five people, a rebel in the area said. Officials at the Russian defense ministry could not immediately be reached for comment." (11/29/15)

"The West's war on ISIS is completely phony. Our efforts, and those of our ally, Turkey, aim at overthrowing Syria strongman Bashar al-Assad -- a goal we share with ISIS as well as our subsidized 'moderate' rebel sock puppets. With Russia's entry into the fight, the phoniness of the anti-ISIS campaign is underscored: Washington is clearly much more interested in countering the Russians than in undermining ISIS." (11/30/15)

"Islamist militants killed four people in an attack on a hotel in Egypt's North Sinai where election judges were staying, the military and Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. A militant tried to drive a car bomb into the hotel before security forces opened fire on him, causing the car to explode, the military said. A suicide bomber got inside the kitchen and blew himself up while a gunman got into a room before firing randomly and killing a judge, they said. Twelve people were wounded. Two policemen were killed and the military said a civilian was among the dead. It said three militants were killed." (11/24/15)

"[N]ot six days after ISIS slaughtered 130 people in Paris; a few more after it brought down a Russian airliner over Egypt and blew up a Hezbollah neighborhood in Beirut, Hillary Clinton is calling for tougher measures against ... wait for it ... ISIS's enemies in the Mideast. Is it time to ask, with Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic field, who needs Doug Feith and Paul Wolfowitz?" (11/23/15)

"The Telegram messaging app, which allows users to encrypt text that self-destructs on a timer, took down a number of channels Islamic State was using for propaganda, highlighting the actions some online companies are taking to react to terrorism. 'We were disturbed to learn that Telegram's public channels were being used by ISIS to spread their propaganda,' Telegram said in a statement on its service late Wednesday, using an acronym for Islamic State. 'As a result, this week alone we blocked 78 ISIS-related channels across 12 languages.'" [editor's note: Two thoughts here. First, is Telegram going to block the propaganda of other states, too, or just this one state's propaganda? And second, who would trust an app that claims to use encryption and self-destruction, but whose creators are able to tell who is using it and for what? - TLK] (11/19/15)

"The fate of the suspected lynchpin behind the Paris massacre was still unclear Thursday as police staged six new raids and made another arrest linked to last week's atrocity. ... Authorities launched six raids in Brussels early Thursday, including in the impoverished Molenbeek neighborhood where [Abdelhamid] Abaaoud grew up, a spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecutor told NBC News. The raided homes belonged to family and friends of Bilal Hadfi. The 20-year-old was one of three suicide bombers who attacked the Stade de France during a soccer game between France and Germany. One person was arrested, the spokesman said, adding that the operation was 'ongoing.'" (11/19/15)

"The 'Islamic State' didn't spring up all by itself out of nowhere. Yes, sure, it was empowered by the US invasion of Iraq and the subsequent break up of that state, and surely the Americans bear a lot of the responsibility, and yet some outside force had to fund what was to become the self-proclaimed 'Caliphate,' and turn it into the wealthiest terrorist group in the world. Someone had to succor it, shield it, and provide the ideological and strategic guidance that culminated in such a high level of organization and demonstrated success. The funding sources are well known: the contributions of rich Saudis, Kuwaitis, and Qataris to the 'holy war' in Syria have been fueling the Syrian rebel cause since the beginning of that bloody insurrection. And the Islamic State isn't the only recipient of their largesse." (11/18/15)

"'ISIS is certainly not a state' said Obama in a recent statement. This is the official line Western governments use to describe ISIS. The label terrorist is often used to describe dangerous and aggressive organizations. However, these characteristics are not used to describe organizations that don't threaten the strategic interests of states that dominate the international community. If they serve the interests of established states, those existing states can be very lenient with these organizations. The Turkish state, for example, recently noticed ISIS was a threat to the Kurdish political agenda that threatened the Turkish state. Thus, Turkey remained quite passive towards ISIS, and only began to position itself against ISIS after being pressured by the US. Still, it is not possible to deny the state-like nature of ISIS without ignoring reality." (11/18/15)

"A homemade explosive device brought down a Russian passenger plane over Egypt last month, the head of Russia's FSB security service said Tuesday, telling Russian President Vladimir Putin it's now clear the bombing that killed 224 people was a 'terrorist' act. The FSB also offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible, appealing to the 'Russian and international communities for cooperation in identifying the terrorists.' The FSB specified that the reward would be paid in dollars." (11/17/15)

"British spies are building elite cyber offensive forces to strike at Islamic State fighters, hackers and hostile powers, finance minister George Osborne said on Tuesday after warning militants wanted to launch deadly digital attacks. Islamic State was trying to develop the capability to attack British infrastructure such as hospitals, power networks and air traffic control systems with potentially lethal consequences, Osborne said. In response, Britain will bolster spending on cyber defences, simplify its state cyber structures and build its own offensive cyber capability to attack adversaries." (11/17/15)

"Describing the Islamic State as 'the face of evil,' President Obama said Monday he will continue working with other countries on a coordinated strategy to destroy the militant group -- without U.S. combat troops. ... Military advisers have told him that ground troops 'would be a mistake,' Obama said during a news conference in Turkey, the site of the G-20 summit. In addition to likely casualties, Obama said the United States would be put in a position of occupying large parts of Syria and Iraq without any clear way out, as happened after the 2003 invasion of Iraq." (11/16/15)

"It may not be popular to say this as emotions run high and calls ring out for more bombing in the Middle East, but there is another way to address the problem. There is an alternative to using more military intervention to address a problem that was caused by military intervention in the first place. That solution is to reject the militarists and isolationists. ... Here is the alternative: Focus on trade and friendly relations, stop shipping weapons, abandon "regime change" and other manipulations, respect national sovereignty, and maintain a strong defense at home including protecting the borders from those who may seek to do us harm." (11/16/15)